Most modern computing systems allow a hardware device, such as a disk, a network card, etc., to be associated with the computing system. When a device is added to the computing system, the computing system can determine whether a general rule or rules exist on the computing system for that type of hardware device. The general rule can include information about one or more actions for the computing system to perform when a hardware device of the corresponding type is added. If a general rule for the type of hardware device exists on the computing system, the hardware device can be successfully added to the system and the general rule for the type of hardware device can be applied to the hardware device.
Once the hardware device has been added, a first virtual machine running on the computing system can have access to or use the hardware device. The first virtual machine can use the general rule for the type of hardware device, and may prevent another virtual machine from using the general rule and/or the hardware device. If a second virtual machine running on the computing system needs access to the hardware device, the second virtual machine may be required to wait for the first virtual machine to finish its access to the hardware device, and may have to wait until the first virtual machine is done with the general rule to use it.